The Texas Automated Buoy System

The Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS) was established in 1994 by the Texas General Land Office. The purpose of TABS is to provide in near-real time measurements of surface oceanic currents that can be used to predict the movement of oil spilled on the sea in Texas coastal waters. Seven buoys, located in the offshore waters from Brownsville TX to Lake Charles, LA. are directly supported by the Texas General Land Office. Two additional buoys, supported by a National Ocean Partnership Program, are located in water depths of 100-200m near the Flower Garden Banks 90 miles SE of Galveston TX. One other buoy, supported by a contract with the Mineral Management Service to Louisiana State University, reports surface current information from Louisiana waters.

The buoys, of two different spar designs, provide a stable platform for the current sensors. The smaller buoy, 0.6m in diameter and 5 meters long is capable of being moored in water depth up to 30m. The large buoy, 0.8m in diameter and 7.5m longs is capable of being moored in water depths up to 200m. The solar powered buoys transmit data either by cellular through an offshore cellular telephone system telephone (small and large buoys) or via satellite through a commercial X.25 data system (large buoy only). Most buoys use a single point electromagnetic current meter, but one is equipped with an ADCP that provides current profiles down to 100m depth.

Data are received in College Station TX, are reviewed by automatic quality control programs, and are posted at least four times daily to our publicly-available web page. Date tables are prepared each day and downloaded to computers at state agencies in Austin TX.

Meteorological data from all Gulf of Mexico coastal stations and NOAA buoys are captured from the GTS data stream, organized, and are displayed graphically on the TABS web pages http://www.gerg.tamu.edu/tglo along with the current information.